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Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is apparently 75 years old today. There have been a number of programmes on the television and the radio charting his progress from the days of Steamboat Willy to the present. Apparently, to celebrate this milestone, the Queen has invited Mickey Mouse for a State Visit, which is causing some distresss to Londoners…
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Blog reach
I'm amazed at the way in which sermons have a life of their own on this blog site. I know that they are read far away from Bridge of Allan. It is becoming not uncommon for people to call me up from far away about something else and end up discussing a sermon that they…
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Reading the gospels
Can I ask you please …What was the look on Jesus?s face as he taught the disciples?? What tone of voice did he adopt when he said these things?? Was he standing or sitting?? Did he have the Hebrew scriptures in his hand or simply written in his heart?? What [and this is the point of this sermon] is…
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Choir woes
Trying to get the church choir together is not like herding cats. I can herd cats. Well, I can herd one particularly difficult cat. The choir, I don't seem able to herd at all.
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None of their own
Last night I was elected as the new convenor of the Liberal Democrats in Stirling, taking over from someone who has done the job with some passion on and off for almost thirty years. Right now, the local Lib Dems are getting very excited about the new voting arrangements for the next local elections (which…
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Postcard Puzzle
Someone put a postcard through my door last night whilst I was out taking a Vestry meeting. It has me puzzled. It is a nice picture of a stained glass window in Dunfermline Abbey. The back of the card is completely blank. It was in a brown office envelope which was sealed and bears my name…
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Church Signs
I remember the effort that it took to get the Church Sign boards updated when I first moved here. They were covered in cobwebs and offered in illegible script information on contacting a range of clergy, some of whom were no longer there and one of whom was dead. There were also details of services…
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Re-membering
What is the opposite of remember?[Forget?]Well, in a sense, the opposite of remember is to forget. We do a lot of remembering in church, but what we are doing is not simply not-forgetting. Neither are we simply calling to mind.For the sake of this sermon, I invite you to consider that for the type of…
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The Anglican view of Marriage
I'm indebted to another member of the clergy for forwarding this on to me yesterday – it brightened up the day and made me laugh a lot:?The actions taken by the New Hampshire Episcopalians are an affront to Christians everywhere. I am just thankful that the church's founder, Henry VIII, and his wife, Catherine of Aragon,…
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Christmas
I've just received my first Christmas card. It is from a company wanting to sell me Church Copyright licences – a business which I find unpleasant enough at the best of times. I hope that I am not being too Scrooge-like by putting it straight in the bin. I have a feeling that a lot of…